City yields to ride-hailing services

Thursday

Eugene-Springfield residents and visitors might be able to hail an Uber driver again later this year — this time legally.

Eugene city councilors voted Wednesday to start the process to amend the city’s ordinance and regulations to make them more amenable for ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft.

Uber operated in the Eugene-Springfield area for less than a year before it suspended operations in April 2015. At the time, a city hearings official ruled that the company must secure a vehicle-for-hire license to continue operating in Eugene. Uber then agreed not to resume service in Eugene without securing that license, to settle a lawsuit filed by the city.

Neither Uber nor another ride-hailing service has secured that license since then, and elected leaders have been under intense pressure from city business leaders and other residents to soften their position.

But local taxi drivers oppose such a move. On Monday, about a half-dozen of them had urged city councilors against making changes that they said would harm the existing taxi industry and benefit companies that don’t share the community’s values.

Mark Whitmill, the city’s building and permit services manager, told city councilors that the existing regulations are “proving to provide a barrier to entrance” into the local market for ride-hailing services.

Eugene is the largest city in Oregon without a ride-hailing service. Uber and Lyft launched in Corvallis, Eugene’s rival city, in September, and in Medford, which has less than half of Eugene’s population, in December.

In November, city councilors expressed an openness to changing their stance if it can be done in a way that continues to protect public safety and regulates ride-hailing services and taxi companies in the same manner.

On Wednesday, with a unanimous vote, they agreed to move forward with those changes after receiving more details about what they would look like.

“It sounds to me that we’ve come up with a good compromise that allows us to bring ride-sharing back, and I’m entirely in favor of it,” Councilor Mike Clark said.

It’s unclear when ride-hailing services could resume in Eugene. City councilors must vote to again amend the ordinance they last updated in 2015, a process that requires a public hearing. That hearing has yet to be scheduled.

Rachelle Nicholas, the city’s code compliance supervisor, told city councilors that “Uber has indicated they are okay with our approach,” while Lyft is still reviewing the proposed changes.

Rena Davis, a public policy manager with Lyft, which previously hasn’t operated in the Eugene-Springfield area, told city councilors in November that the company looked “forward to working with you and the staff” to launch its service locally. A Lyft representative didn’t respond to an email from The Register-Guard requesting comment.

With the proposed changes, the city is giving a bit of ground on two of the three regulations that ride-hailing services have long opposed.

The biggest was the city’s requirement for all for-hire drivers to carry a minimum of $1 million in liability insurance whenever they are working.

The proposed change allows for-hire drivers to carry varying minimum levels of insurance, depending on when they’re available for pickups or driving a customer.

Another change no longer would require a city inspection of a for-hire driver’s vehicle. Instead, the city would rely on a vehicle inspection report by a certified mechanic.

The city is holding fast, however, on a requirement that a prospective for-hire driver undergo a criminal background check by the Eugene Police Department. The ride-hailing industry practice is for a company to contract with a third-party firm to run those checks.

“That’s a very important baseline,” Councilor Claire Syrett said. “I’m not willing to compromise on the background check piece.”

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